Resident Spotlight: Victoria Sauer (Residency Fellow)

Interview between Saria Smith, Curatorial Assistant, and Victoria Sauer, Residency Fellow

Victoria in her studio. Photo: William Johnson http://www.wmjohnsonphotography.com/

S: Where are you from?                  

Victoria: I am from Hendersonville, Tennessee, and it's a suburb outside of Nashville. The only legacy is that’s where Taylor swift is from, so all her small town songs are written about that city.

S: How did you hear about Stove Works?

Victoria: I originally heard about it through school. It was kind of like a vague idea that was being formulated when I first moved here four years ago. They had a couple of pop-up shows during my time at school, and I heard about the sideshow slideshow, their impromptu artist presentations, and I was able to do that. Then I did a studio visit with them and got offered this residency fellow position, and while I was waiting for that, I became the curatorial assistant under the previous curator Mike.

S: What are some things that inspired you to this interest in real and surreal.

Victoria: Dreams. That's basically the short answer. In the last two years at UTC, we get a lot more free reign in our studio classes. So, I started making work about the everyday and mundane, like odd moments that people don't really pay attention to. It could be a scuff mark on the wall or something. Then I flipped it and started doing surrealist dreamwork, which the Cereal painting was the first in that area. I think of my work as being this point on a spectrum between ordinary and absurdity. The inspiration for the absurdity comes from my dreams. I use them kind of like source imagery for some paintings. Then, things from life are just inspired by moments from life. 

Cereal, 2019, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in

S: You say you work with hyperrealism to “bring awareness to these moments we find familiar but frequently ignore,” but could this also not be achieved through photography? What is your argument for using oil paint to relay this message?

Victoria: It’s not a very deep answer because, for me, it’s almost nonsensical for me to assume photography is fine. For me, the photograph is so far from what I want to create. I do work from photographs, which I take for my reference, but I would never want to present those photographs. To my eyes, they're just not good enough. To the blind eye, they may say my work looks like a photograph, but to me, I've actually changed it so much. The way I work, photography is not fulfilling enough, I need to put my hand in it, and I don't want to lose the tiniest bit of error that I put into a painting. The “hyper” in hyper-real is that it's realistic, but it's just a little outside of our reality.

S: Your mixed media art also deals with this idea of mundane images. How would you say your mixed media work relates to your paintings and more well-known works?

Victoria: I’ve only done one book that is based on dream worlds, and that’s the book Recalling. Everything else has been more about identity and domestic spaces, which are ideas that come up in the paintings. Domestic spaces are the setting of a lot of my paintings. I have a lot of personal relationships to homes. My Piece (De)construction is deconstructing the top floor of my childhood home. That work is far more personal than my paintings ever get.  It’s about my childhood home and memories. The specific architecture of my house played a big role in a lot of my childhood trauma. It was therapeutic to physically deconstruct it and see different images forming. I've found that mixed media is more intimate, but commonly my first thought goes to painting.

(De)construction, 2019, matte board, permanent marker on acetate paper, book rings, 7x 8.75 in.

S: Why do you do what you do?

Victoria:  I do it for myself, but I also want to share my experiences with the world and other artists and other people. That's what I get out of viewing other people's work. It's like this exchange of humanity. When I see something that no one would ever look twice at, I feel like I want to share it. I want to represent it in a new way.

S: By using oil paint, you relate back to the idea from art history, but with a modern twist, which is likely most evident in your painting Reconstruction of the Female Nude. Do you seek to emulate age-old Western techniques, how much does that influence you?

Victoria: I don't really try to emulate that style. My work is pretty contemporary. That painting is an outlier because it's not about dreams or the ordinary, but it still is this reconstruction of a common thing. The way it’s presented is pretty absurd. It was a challenge presented to us in a figure painting class to study old classical nude painting of women and think about what that means today and how we can still paint nude figures without sexualizing them and appreciating them as a form. I aimed to bring attention to certain parts of the body that don’t get much attention, like knuckles or toenail polish or weird folds in the skin.

Reconstruction of the Female Nude, 2019, oil on canvas, 45 x 30 in.

S: What was your biggest fear after graduating with your BFA?

Victoria: I got the opportunity to be a resident fellow offered to me a few months before I graduated, but prior to that, I was lost. I was so scared. My biggest fear was that I would never pick up a paintbrush again. I love painting, but it's about accessibility. I don't have a space in my old house I could have painted. You don't have the same camaraderie you have in college. I would recommend to anyone just make it work, look into renting, carve out a space in your house, stay connected to your old peers and old professors. Thankfully being here right after graduation is the best thing that could happen to me as an artist.

S: What advice do you wish you had heard as a student in the Arts?

Victoria: I’d say I'm never going to make anyone go to college or say that you need a degree, but if you're in it, don't give up if you have the financial resources to stay in school. I get frustrated with how meaningful degrees are, but they are. There were so many times in college where I wanted to quit. Mentally and emotionally, I didn't know if I could handle it anymore, but I'm really glad I stuck it out because it really is worth it in the end. Fresh out of school, I feel thankful for everything I learned and all the people I met. I miss the critics and professors challenging me, but at the same time, it's been really freeing.

Night House, 2020, oil on canvas, 35 x 50 in.

S: What is something that you think Stove Works has done really well in your time here?

Victoria: I am super impressed with the show downstairs, Teachable Moment. That’s a lot of work to get together and installed in a short time frame. I’m also very pleased with how well and seriously they have handled COVID-19 and that they do their best consistently to make us all feel safe and cared for. Other than that, this entire organization is just really well done. To build a residency and gallery space up from nothing is so incredible and so necessary for this city.

S: What are you planning to do after Stove Works?

Victoria: That’s a really good question. That brings me back to January of last year where I just had no idea. But I've learned that especially now, after living through a year of COVID, planning sometimes means nothing. I've also learned that not planning is okay, and sometimes things just fall into your lap when they need to. I'm a spiritual person. I believe everything happens for a reason. I just have faith that everything will always work out for the best as long as I keep pushing myself and applying myself in the present day. So, to answer your question, I don't have immediate plans at all. I'm open to anything.

About Victoria

Victoria Sauer is an Artist and Resident Fellow at Stove Works. She recently graduated from the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga with a BFA in Painting and Drawing. She spends her time creating images that explore dreamlike, hyper-realistic scenes and aims to bring attention to mundane moments of life through oil paint. She has worked with mixed media and sculpture as well. She is inspired by the real and surreal and aims to create in the middle point between really real and moments just outside of our common reality. I was lucky enough to sit down with her as she finished her bagel and ask her some questions.

To learn more about Victoria and her work, visit her website: http://www.victoriasauer.com/

ABOUT ME, THE INTERVIEWER

My name is Saria Smith, and I am a BFA Student currently working as the Curatorial Assistant at Stove Works Gallery. I am an artist and find joy in expressing myself through various ways involving, working with found objects, collage, and music. I decided to start these artist interviews as a way for the public to connect more with the residents who flow through Stove Works perhaps unseen, especially during this pandemic.

Resident Spotlight: Sean Clark

Interview between Saria Smith, Curatorial Assistant, and Sean Clark, Artist-in-Residence.

Sean Clark in hist studio. Photo: @wolfrancis

Saria: Did you always think you were an artist?

Sean C: Not necessarily. I was definitely drawing superheroes out of comic books when I was in elementary school. Probably not till I moved to New Orleans in 2012 did I start considering myself an artist. That's the first time I painted consistently. I started in college as an outlet. The environment when I moved to New Orleans was rich with opportunities to see, experience, and make art. 

Saria: How did living in New Orleans influence your art?

Sean C: It's so rich in culture and different types of experiences that you can have. It's hard for me to explain, but it's just a magical place. There's no other place that I've been to like it. In terms of people, you can feel that creative energy in the air. It's everywhere. 

Saria: Was there anything specific in your childhood that sparked your excitement for art?

Sean C: Definitely. My love of X-Men and comic books. That, and my dad’s college roommate was an artist, and so our house had paintings, sculptures, and other stuff he had done. So I was raised in an environment where I was surrounded by it.

Saria: You minored in public health and African American studies. How does that inform your art now?

Sean C: Before I start a painting, I look at it through a certain lens of how the information that's contained within the piece is being seen. I think about what I am trying to communicate about what's going on in the environment. I look to a lot of public health issues and a lot of health practitioners to inform me of my subject matter. A big thing is thinking about mental health and working in public health; you encounter that all the time.

Saria: How does your personal identity factor into your work?

Sean C: I think that being a black person from the south is something ingrained into my everything, from the clothes I wear to how I paint. It's something that I proudly carry with me everywhere. There's a lot to that question. In terms of my identity, I look back a lot. I look at my family history; I look at my peers, my cousins, there are so many different components. I'm not sure how to hone it into one cohesive thought. 

NFS (Not For Sale). 12x12in, 2020

Saria: Do you use your art as a form of therapy

Sean C: Yeah, it's definitely therapeutic, just the act of painting even if what you create is not something that's necessarily aesthetically pleasing, just that act of sort of stepping outside of time and being in the zone for a while gives you a mental break. 

Saria: What attracts you to abstract work?

Sean C: I really like mark making, to make a mark and fill in the space. I studied biology, and one of the first things you encounter is talking about the cell and all these microscopic things that happen. To me, those abstract works resembled those sorts of cellular processes that power us. I think that's what's emerging from the abstract work, something that is within us.

Saria: What was the inspiration for the mask paintings? Where did the name meeting notes come from?

Sean C: I was working in public health. I spent so much time just in meetings, and I would be there doodling, drawing these little faces. They really started to look like my dad’s college roommate’s work. His name is Sammie Nicely. He used to do these big ceramic masks, and the ones I was doodling started to look like that. So later, I had all these meeting agendas and scrap paper with all these little mask-like things, and I took those little sketches and turned them into larger paintings.

Saria: Who were some major influences for you?

Sean C: My Dad got stuff from artists in the 80s, so a bunch of Sammie’s work and then an artist named Schroeder Cherry who still makes great work, these were the paintings I grew up around. Then just all the comic books, like Jack Kirby doing the early X-Men stuff, and one of my favorites is Bill Sienkiewicz, it's painterly but still a comic.

Meeting Notes 92, acrylic/oil pen on watercolor, 18x24in, 2018

Saria: What does the community mean to you?

Sean C: Looking out for each other, being considerate of the people you share space with. When people are just blatantly disrespecting the environment and the people within it, it makes me mad. Community to me is just being considerate and helping those you share the space with. It's as simple as I can put it.

X-Men #1, Acrylic and Oil Pastel on paper, 3ft x 6ft, 2019

Saria: What do you think is really good about this residential community?

Sean C:  I think everybody here has been respectful of the circumstances of everything that's going on, which I appreciate. Everyone has been kind and easy-going, and I enjoy being a part of the initial group that's still figuring it out. Hopefully, something from our experience will help future cohorts to come into this space with great ease.

Saria: What do you think Stove Works has done really well in your time here?

Sean C: They've done well in bringing us together. With things as simple as us having a fire pit to convene around, I appreciate that. If there were issues, they'd be on top of it. The staff and everybody work seamlessly, everything feels like it's flowing.

Saria: What are your plans after Stove Works?

Sean C: I'm going to see my friends and just chill out for a couple of weeks. Next month three pieces are going to be shown at the upcoming Trout Museum in Wisconsin and I have a big abstract piece going to Art Fields in Lake City, South Carolina.

About Sean 

Sean Clark is a self-taught artist from Chattanooga that now lives in New Orleans. Sean is greatly inspired by Sammie Nicely, comic artists and writers such as Ralph Ellison, among many others. Sean graduated from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a concentration in Public Health and African American studies, topics that continue to influence his art practice. He has one week left at Stove Works, and thankfully I got time to sit down and talk with him about his life, his art, and his influences.

If you want to see more of Sean’s work and be inspired, you can view his stuff at www.sgclarkart.com

About Me, the interviewer

My name is Saria Smith, and I am a BFA Student currently working as the Curatorial Assistant at Stove Works Gallery. I am an artist and find joy in expressing myself through various mediums, especially music, printmaking, and painting. I decided to start these artist interviews as a way for the public to connect more with the residents who flow through Stove Works perhaps unseen, especially during this pandemic.

Happy Friday from Stove Works :) 

Resident Spotlight: io

Interview between Saria Smith, Curatorial Assistant, and io, Artist-in-Residence.

io in their studio at Stove Works. Photo: @wolfrancis

 The Interview

S: Where are you from?

io: My home is Abiquiu, New Mexico, where I've been living for the past few years. My former partner and I purchased a piece of property there, and have spent a lot of time fixing up the house and creating a space where queer and trans people can come and find solace together.

S: The oldest works on your website are photographs, was photography your first entrance into art?

io: Yeah. I started taking photographs when I was in high school. I was exclusively shooting in black and white and mostly working with my body. I was thinking a lot about the relationship between myself as a photographer, subject, and object; and what my responsibilities to each of those three people was. And what it would mean going forward showing photographs of my body as a teenage girl in my work. This was when I was starting to think a lot about my gender. It was intentionally very feminized.

untitled (self portrait), c. 2004, silver gelatin print, 3 x 2 inches

S: How did you go from photography to then making these creature drawings?

io: When I was at SAIC, I started feeling like I wanted to have a conversation that was more expansive than a sort of document of a trans body. I started thinking a lot about the way trans photography has been a process of legitimizing trans people and making us accessible. I felt at that time that photography was failing me as a medium. Because I wasn't interested in the static-ness of a moment or a body. The drawings are successful to me when they are in a space of being able to see multiple things over a span of time. Two little dots can be nipples or eyes, and elbows can be knees. There's a way in which they keep shifting and keep revealing things about themselves.

untitled, 2015, pencil on paper, 3 x 5 1/2 inches

S: How do you see your art?

io: One of the things that has become clear is that it's an articulation of a series of successive states; it's about the process of transformation. The drawings, in particular, are things I've been trying to make for like ten years. There's something I'm trying to capture that hasn't come. There's this other way where I almost feel like they are channeled through me. They come when they want to. I see them as having their own energies and life forces, and I feel in some ways I'm just helping manifest them in the world. My work is figuring out what it means to never be a static body.

S: Did you always feel like an artist?

io: No. My grandmother really influenced me a lot. She was like having a personal docent and having someone who always put materials in front of me. I worked with her with clay a lot, but I don't think that is why I became an artist. I think I became an artist to deal with trauma in a more somantic way. Especially as a younger person, there were some things that I just couldn't work out through language.

S: How does your identity factor into your work?

io: Firstly, it's me trying to figure something out. For myself and broadly in many ways, what it means to be human and what it means to continue to stay alive. and how to be in a body in the world and in relation to other people. It's an articulation of a deep struggle that I feel. My process with articulating my own embodiment has been very tangled up in my making process. 

S: What are you hoping your art does for people?

io: Part of disturbing subjectivities is that the subject gets kind of messy. I'm hoping that might evoke in the viewer a thought that maybe they're not just a linear person who has always been this specific thing and will always be this specific thing.

untitled, 2015, pencil on paper, 4 x 6 inches

S: What does community mean to you?

io: In particular with queer and trans community, its multiple things. What I feel is important to me about having created that space is that there are particular conversations that sometimes need to be had with people who have had similar experiences. It's important for people to have spaces with sameness. Going through grad school, I found that the conversations I wanted to be having, I wanted to have with queer and trans people. Having spaces where there are shared experiences is really important and can be healing as well.

S: What do you think Stove Works has done really successfully?

io: Stove Works has really honored the importance of space and time as incredibly valuable assets for people who are articulating something and also being in a community of artists and being able to have the space to have conversations about what I'm thinking and making. It feels in so many ways the same as doing healing work because we are all in our own spaces doing our own thing, and then we are coming together to validate and support each other. I think that is really special about this space.

About io:

io (fka Aiden Simon) is an artist in residence here at Stove Works with an aim to disrupt stable states and subjectivities, with playfulness being a key character in their work. Io uses photography, sculpture, drawing, and writing to explore what it is to be human and create safe places for each part of that experience. They received their BFA in Photography at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2009 and MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) 2013.

They are a Resident at Stove Works through the end of January. Thankfully I get to interview them before they leave.

ABOUT ME, THE INTERVIEWER:

My name is Saria Smith, and I am a BFA Student currently working as the Curatorial Assistant at Stove Works Gallery. I am an artist and find joy in expressing myself through various mediums, especially music, printmaking, and painting. I decided to start these artist interviews as a way for the public to connect more with the residents who flow through Stove Works perhaps unseen, especially during this pandemic.

Each week, I will be conducting an interview with one of Stove Works’ Artists-in-Residence. This week I am in conversation with Le’Andra LeSeur, who has been a Resident since November of last year. Check back next Friday afternoon for my discussion with io.

io’s work installed in Hot Donuts Now at Stove Works, curated by Ash Eliza Smith

Resident Spotlight: LeAndra LeSeur

About me, the Interviewer:

My name is Saria Smith, and I am a BFA Student currently working as the Curatorial Assistant at Stove Works Gallery. I am an artist and find joy in expressing myself through various mediums, especially music, printmaking, and painting. I decided to start these artist interviews as a way for the public to connect more with the residents who flow through Stove Works perhaps unseen, especially during this pandemic.

Each week, I will be conducting an interview with one of Stove Works’ Artists-in-Residence. This week I am in conversation with Le’Andra LeSeur, who has been a Resident since November of last year. Check back next Friday afternoon for my discussion with io.

About Le’Andra:

Le’Andra LeSeur is an artist who was raised in the Bronx and Atlanta, both of which she calls her home. She is a visual artist who deals with themes of queer, femme, and black identity. Working mostly through video and installation art she presents her viewers with an opportunity to behold the slow steady movements of life and to contemplate the importance of being seen and accepted.

Le’Andra in her studio at Stove Works. Photo by @wolfrancis

The Interview:

S: Where were you before you came to Stove Works?

Le’Andra:  I was in Jersey City and working between Jersey City, NJ, and Brooklyn, New York.

My really close friend, Josiah Golson, was telling me about Stove Works and in late 2018 i had just won an award for my project Brown, Carmine, and Blue and he invited me to do a talk here in Chattanooga. That’s when I met Charlotte and I got the invite to apply for the residency and it was perfect.

S:  What made you gravitate towards video art?

Le’Andra: There’s something really beautiful about video in that it's not something that has been given a real standard besides technology getting better. How you utilize video in the context of art there are so many ways to experiment with it. I’ve been able to push a lot of different things with video which for me is very fulfilling and that is why I keep gravitating back to it.

S: Most of your video work uses a technique where one moment is extended for a long period of time, what causes you to gravitate to that certain style? 

Le’Andra: I started out in photography and with that background, I’m always thinking about this theme of stillness. That specific moment was always beautiful to me but I’ve always been pushing the question of what happens after that moment. With the video works, I'm pushing that question and that idea but also still trying to relate to the foundations. When I do the video work most of them are like self-portraits and in that moment of me being in front of the camera is actually me going through this meditative process.

S:  This idea of validation comes up again in your work, in reference to your live performance “Subject to Your Approval” where strobes are pointed at you and are triggered by the viewer choosing to come into your space. Again, where does the thought come from with that?

Le’Andra: I’m thinking of this process of validation. I’m standing there nude; these strobes are in front of me. When someone is not in the space you can’t see me. It’s completely dark, but when you walk in, that's when the strobes accentuate my figure, so you have to make the decision if you continue to stand there and expose me or if you leave and allow me to go disregarded. It’s interesting because we don't really need validation in life, in that moment you don't have to be seen because even in the dark you understand your body and form. Just by being you are validated. 

Subject to your Approval, 2018, Durational Performance

S: You wrote on your page a quote from Maybe Rainbows Do Exist At Night, “Beauty in blackness had to be projected in order to be accepted.” What does that mean to you?

Le’Andra: Rainbows are this thing that happens in light and not necessarily in darkness but why does it have to only happen in light? I was thinking of this idea how as black people we have to forcefully project who we are and our beauty. We have to prove ourselves to some degree. I should just exist, and you should be able to see it and that’s that. I'm trying to transcend into the existence of ‘just be.’ 

Maybe rainbows do exist at night, Microscope Gallery, 2019

S: You do deal a lot also with the themes of queer, femme, and black identity. How do you see your role since you have a voice that pertains to these marginalized categories?

Le’Andra: I feel like my role personally is to be sure that I'm challenging systems, structures, and the ways that we’re thinking about things and doing things; the way that we’re even seeing things. That’s why I insert myself into a lot of the work and I speak specifically about my identity as a black, queer woman. There has to be a way for us to freely exist without any feeling of being looked at a certain way or misrepresented in any type of way, for me that's very important.

S: What is your relationship with your art?

Le’Andra: My art is an extension of myself and my art is a way for me to process my emotions. When I first started creating I was always asking the question, who is this for and I could never fully answer it and I always felt like this kind of imposter. I had to start telling myself that when I make work I need to make it for me cause that’s when I know it's going to be genuine and true to everything I want it to be. My relationship is profound for me because it is an extension of myself.

S: What does community and specifically the community at Stove Works mean to you?

Le’Andra:  Community for me has always been people that just show up. You show up for them, they show up for you. Even if it's five people in your community as long as there’s care and mutual aid given to one another, that to me is important and that’s been a part of my community and part of my life. Here at Stove Works, even simple things like passing by and saying hi or making sure we’re cleaning up after each other, little things like that, that type of intention and making sure everyone feels comfortable is really important. It's been very nice to just have this nice collective care happening in this space.

S: How do you see your role in the art world as a whole? 

Le’Andra: I don't ever want to be an artist that gives into the ways of being an artist. There's a book I was reading called Tell Them I Said No and it's about an artist who said no to the system in place. I want to create art and reach the people that look like me, feel like me, that they can connect with it even if they know nothing about art.

S:  What have you seen Stove Works do well since you've been here?

Le’Andra: It's beautiful to be in a space and there not be any requirements of you and you are free to do what's needed. As an artist, it's nice to have the freedom to be in a space and process things. I think the team at Stove Works has been really positive in that regard, they've been good about reinforcing this idea that they want you to be here to experience Chattanooga and create friendships and build an artist network and community. 

S: What are you working on after you leave Stove works? What can we expect?

Le’Andra: Right now, I'm working on two large pieces, one is right after I leave stove work and I'll be in Atlanta for a month. I'll be a part of the Atlanta Biennial at the Atlanta Contemporary and I'll be doing a large 7 channel piece there. It opens on the 18th of February and is open till the end of May. I also have a show coming up in New York at The Shed. I'll be doing a 5 channel collaborative performance. That's what’s on the list for this year and then next year will be a whole other thing.

brown, carmine, and blue.
Public Space 415, SiTE:LAB
ArtPrize 10 Juried Grand Prize Winner, 2018

Thanks so much to Le’Andra for sitting and talking with me :)

If you, the viewer, want to learn more about Le’Andra and see her work you can visit her website Lleseur.com and satisfy your curious desires.

In the Studio with Mike, Josiah, and Charlie

Legacies of Making

In our studio visit with Charlie Newton, the artist expounds on the legacy of everyday Black cultural production that has inspired his artistic practice. Referencing quilt-making among a plethora of other crafts and practices, Newton explains how the act of making provides a sense of identity, community, and purpose. What might it look like for you to make a creative action that is inspired by existing crafts, practices, or legacies from your own family and community experiences? 

Activity Supplies:

1. Blank Sheet of Paper

2. Pencil or Pen

3. Several Colors of a Medium of Choice

Activity Steps: 

1. In your home or living space, identify one object or documentation of an object that was made by a family member, friend, or relative. It can be as simple as a small craft or frame, or as grand and elaborate as a quilt. 

2. Sit with this object and on a blank sheet of paper, make a list of thoughts, feelings, memories, and responses you have when contemplating this object. You can write from stream-of-consciousness or with as much structure as you like. Try to write for at least five minutes. 

3. After your writing, gather your media in color and color your sheet of notes however you feel inspired. Use the curves and spaces between the text as inspiration. Work on this for at least 10 minutes. Upon completion, reflect. How do you see yourself reflected in the response to the object? 

Visit Clip:

About Charlie:

Charlie Newton began drawing at the age of five years old.  "I saw the light of God coming through the window when I saw a drawn picture for the first time in my life.  From then on I was hooked" he exclaims.  Having received his BA from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and his MFA from Old Dominion University and Norfolk  State University Newton also studied with the University of Georgia's Studies Abroad Program in Cortona Italy.   Since 1986 Newton has exhibited in London, Italy, New York, New Jersey, Washington, DC, Richmond Virginia, and numerous galleries in the South East including The Red Clay Survey, Huntsville Museum and Boundless Expressions, H. Lee Moffit Center, Tampa, Florida.   His work is represented in private and public collections in the US and abroad including The Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN, The College of St. Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ, Sun Trust Bank, Chattanooga, TN,  Wallace H. Kuralt Center, Charlotte, NC and  The Chattanooga African American Museum, Chattanooga, TN. In 2012 Mr. Newton and his wife painter Iantha Newton founded SPLASH a free art school for urban youth.  Mr. Newton maintains his art studio where he paints full time in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

https://artistcharlienewton.com/about.php

https://splashyouthartsworkshop.org/

ABOUT FOREVER PAINTING:

If all the paintings that have ever been made were compressed on to one canvas; every mark and brushstroke continuous, what would be its content, its sum total? What would this new, amalgamation say or describe or depict? This canvas would capture the past, the present, the future, as new marks are made they are added to the heap, an archive of perpetual presents. So Forever-Painting doesn’t care about asserting painting’s relevance, which signifies its importance, its gravity in that historical moment. Instead, these works attempt, move toward, and seek, totality, a genesis, that in its becoming defines both wholes and parts as not that what they seem, and definitely not what they are. 

In the Studio with Mike, Josiah, and Rontherin

Rosebud

Through his mobile-home work titled “Rosebud,” Rontherin Ratliff uses the process of deconstructing and reassembling a shotgun house to engage us to see and reimagine how our structures take up space. With a video that threads footage of multiple artists working in a 24-hour period, Rosebud invites us to contemplate our spacial needs and possibilities in tune with our creative professions and crafts. How might we reimagine our workspaces individually and collectively?

Exercise Steps:

Materials: Blank sheet of paper, Camera (the one that might be on your phone is fine), 2 colors of the medium of your choice (pencil, marker, etc) 

1. First, identify a room, space, or area in or outside your home that serves as a workspace for your art practice, craft, or hobby. Take a photo of this space as it is in its current state.

2. After taking the photo, sit with the picture and with one of your pencils (or chosen media), sketch the lines that emerge from the most prominent lines and edges that you observe in the photo of your workspace.

3. Study these lines that you’ve and the shape or shapes that emerge. What might this express about your work space, your work, and your body in this space at work?

4. With the second color of your chosen medium, replicate the original lines that you sketched, but draw the new lines differently. Try making some lines longer or smaller, add curves, improvise. Imagine this as a transformation of your space.

5. When finished, use your drawing and refer to the real life perspective of your space. The one that you photographed. How might the process of your drawing inform and inspire potential changes to your workspace that could enhance your experience in the space?

A Clip from the visit:

ABOUT RONTHERIN:

Rontherin Ratliff was born in New Orleans where he currently lives and works. He is a self-taught artist whose work explores the relationship between aspects of architecture as analogous to the characteristics of the human conditions. He is a member of Antenna and LEVEL Artist Collective in New Orleans. Recent exhibition venues include the Elsewhere Museum (Greensboro, NC), Art Route 2017 (Groningen, NL), Xavier University Gallery (New Orleans, LA), Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University (New Orleans, LA), Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, Deering Estate  (Miami, FL), Governor’s Island, (New York,NY), 516 ARTS (Albuquerque, NM), Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery (Worcester, MA), University Galleries, FAU (Boca Raton, FL) and The Ford Foundation Gallery (New York,NY).

Rontherin will be a participating artist in the exhibition Living Room which will run in our 2021 exhibition season AND in a two-person show with Rondell Crier in the Fall of 2021.

 www.rontherin.com

In the Studio with Mike, Josiah, and Matt

Work

In our studio visit with Matt Ager, both he and Mike spoke deeply and passionately about the meaning of life, work, and artistic practice, and what it might look like outside of the framework of commerce and the financial demands we have to meet. 

How might you imagine or reimagine the meaning of your work (whatever it may be, artistic or not) if it were not connected to sustaining your everyday needs? 

Try this exercise: 

Supplies needed: A blank sheet of paper or support, a pencil (any color), and an eraser.

1. First, on the piece of paper, draw a large shape that would represent your “day job.” 

2. Second, color the shape fully. Take your time doing this, and as you color, think of all of the things material and non-material that you take from this work. 

3. Third, within the shape, use your eraser to now erase what you’ve just colored, eliminating almost every mark except the original outline of the shape. 

4. Sit with this for a moment, and think of those things you identified while coloring...which of those things would come even if they weren’t tied to an economic resource or compensation? 

5. Write, draw, or symbolize these things within the shape. Add others that might come to you.
   

A clip from the visit:

ABOUT MATT:

Matt Ager is an artist based in London, making sculptures from ceramic, plaster, domestic materials, and found objects. He is particularly interested in fluidly composing works that address mimicry, design, and architecture. He believes that objects and textures carry particular identities which is continuously exploring through his practice. His primary focus is using making as a way of thinking. Through using a combination of existing materials alongside simple and sophisticated ways of fabrication, the work builds, nurtures, and embodies a social dialogue.

The work establishes a relationship with re-definition; it usually includes the use of the assisted readymade and builds narratives around social status and taste, constructing a crafted work out of something that may initially appear mundane. 

Matt will be a participating artist in the exhibition Anthropometry which will run in our 2022 exhibition season.

www.mattager.com
@matt.ager

In the Studio with Mike, Josiah, and Raquel // Connected // Connecting

BLUE

Raquel Mullins shares that working with blue has been an avenue in discovering her "artistic voice." Identifying with the color's role as representative of one's "throat chakra" and in her own journey in expression and healing, Mullins uses blue in a significant way in her drawings of past homes as metaphors for the body and settings for stories. What might it look like for us to explore the potential and power of our own voices within our personal spaces, especially in this time where many of us are spending more time at home.  

Supplies: 

1. A Blue medium of choice (crayon, pencil. ink, etc) 

2. A regular pencil or pen (preferably not blue)

3. Blank sheet of paper or something on which to color

4. Ruler or straight edge
   
   

Steps: 

1. First, with your regular pencil/pen and ruler, draw a "floor plan" of your home. Don't worry about it being exact in measurement, just focus on drawing the spaces that represent each room, including the kitchen, closet, etc. If your home has 2 or more floors, you can draw a plan for each floor. 

2. Make sure to label or note the rooms in your plan if you need to. 

3. Take your blue medium and begin to color the space of the floor plan for the space in which you're currently sitting. When you color, let your marks represent how comfortable you are in expressing your voice in that specific room or space. What actions or aspects affect this dynamic? The volume of your voice? Instruments in the room? Other people or objects? When finished with one room, go to the next and color that corresponding space to represent how comfortable you feel with your voice in that space. Continue this process until you've finished coloring your plans. 

4. After your floor plan is fully colored, sit with it and the possible shades or dynamics of blue. In what rooms does your voice appear the strongest or most authentic? What about the opposite? What might be the things about these spaces that empower, stifle, or haunt your voice?

Clip from Raquel’s visit:

About Raquel:

Raquel Mullins (b. 1989) is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Chattanooga, TN. Her drawings, installations, paintings, writing, artist books and other creative works are inspired by an uncanny intertwining of dreams, memories, and fantasy. Her work confronts questions of contemporary domestic life by archiving autobiographical experience. She illuminates wonder by highlighting small, everyday objects, spaces, and phenomena. Like the bowerbird, Raquel treats her artistic practice as a ritual act of nesting, collecting, archiving, mending, and homemaking in response to a personal history of instability. Memories of dwelling spaces serve as a rich breeding ground for her investigation of the meaning of home and belonging in the 21st century, and the role of architecture and collected objects as a locus of memory and identity.

Mullins received a BS in Art Education from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2012 and an MFA in Studio Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2018. She taught elementary and middle school art for five years in the Chattanooga area. She now exhibits her work nationally and is an adjunct faculty member in the art department at UTC and Southern Adventist University.

@raquelmullinsart on IG
https://raquelmullins.com/

Resources:

Earlier Event: May 8

In the Studio with Mike, Josiah, and Klypi

Later Event: June 5

In the Studio with Mike, Josiah, and Shane

In the Studio with Klypi // Connected // Connecting

The New Stage:

Klypi has shared that as a musician and performer, it is particularly difficult to realize authentic and creative connection with audiences in a time where public health requires social distancing. Without concert venues and shared physical spaces, it can be difficult to perform and to realize energy similar to live platforms, especially when the current spaces and presentations of performance lack the design for such engagement. How might we re-imagine our current spaces in ways that better support our performance with these limitations?

Activity: Setting up an intentional space of performance in one's shelter and documenting it via camera phone, etc. 

Steps:

1. First, identify a space in your home where you currently or could potentially use for your zoom meetings, video posts, etc. Try to pick a space that you specifically would use to create and share/stream a performance.

2. Next, imagine that this space will be a "stage" for you to perform for an audience that you engage virtually. Even if you're not a practicing artist, what might you perform on this stage? A song? A reading of your or another's poetry or prose? A dramatic monologue?

3. Once you've chosen the nature of what you will perform, sit with your "stage" and make 3 changes to customize it specifically as a space for your performance. Focus on the following three elements:

4. Light: How might you alter the light (naturally or otherwise) to properly serve your performance?

5. Curtain: What object(s) might serve as a "curtain" to conceal and reveal elements of you and your performance?

6. Backstage Request: What treats, indulgences, or demands would you make for proper preparation to perform? All green M&Ms, crustless bread sandwiches? Choose one and place it in your stage space. Remember though, you have to fulfill this request.

7. Once your stage is set, take a photo of it and share it with us!  

Clip from Klypi’s Visit:

ABOUT KLYPI:

Klypi will be a participating artist in the exhibition Music.Video. which will run in our 2021 exhibition season AND will be one of our first Artists-in-Residence.

Klypi is the alt-pop musical persona of AC Carter: artist & curator currently based in Athens, GA. Klypi's music is based on trauma and heartbreak, hoping to express these emotions through humor, gender deviancy, and being "a-little nasty". Previously known as Lambda Celsius, AC has self-released 2 full length albums, a noise compilation through Phinery Records in Denmark, has performed at numerous venues and art openings such as Vesna Pavlović's Mixtape, has performed at Big Ears Festival, Athens Popfest, and Secret Stages, and has opened for artists such as Molly Nilsson, John Maus, of Montreal, and Girlpool.  Currently, AC is finishing up Klypi's first full length with musical artist Precious Child, a much needed turn in AC's personal quest for growth and identity. 

https://www.klypi.com/
Spotify
Youtube
Instagram
Website
Bandcamp

In the Studio with Ash Eliza Smith // Connected // Connecting

On Friday, April 24th, Mike, Josiah, and a group of virtual attendees spent the better part of two hours in the Studio with Ash Eliza Smith. Ash will be a participating artist in the exhibition Music.Video. which will run in our 2021 exhibition season. Mike, Josiah, and Ash will be continuing their conversation about how her work and how storytelling and the ‘virtual’ play a roll in her work. Of particular captivation was a conversation surrounding how we see and perceive ourselves in those ‘virtual’ spaces.

Activity: "The 'Me' is the Message"

"I am all things to everyone
I may be idle, but I don't know
The situation's really quite unique
They all believe every word I speak"

Radio Stars, "The Real Me" 1978

In our last studio visit, Ash Smith spoke with Mike about the unique opportunities to push the boundaries of our platforms of digital communication as we prioritize public safety while continuing to engage. Ash imagines opportunities to shift from the regular "talking head" platforms of zoom meetings and such to explore how we can engage with tools in VR and other media. This thinking also invites us to explore how our current practices lead us to interpret and reinterpret ourselves as we exist and communicate between the physical and digital spaces. 

Materials: 

Writing/drawing tool of any kind (pencil, pen, etc)
Sheet of paper 
Optional: Access to a mirror 

1. On one side of your paper, draw or sketch an outline of your profile (facing toward the center of the paper) to the best of your ability. Try posing in front of a mirror to see your profile as best as possible while you draw. 

2. On the opposite side of your paper, draw or sketch an outline that faces and mirrors your profile. 

3. In the space of the original profile, write a message of any kind. It can be a quote, an instruction, a question, etc. It could be a regularly used phrase you might use in the course of a zoom meeting or a facetime conversation.  

4. Now, focus on the space between your 'faces.' Imagine that this space represents the gate between your physical self and your "avatar." As Kent Clark enters the phone booth to transform into Superman, how might we transform (intentionally and unintentionally) when we enter digital spaces to ultimately re-emerge and create things in physical space? 

Within this space, use your drawing tool to make marks to represent a gate or portal between your selves. When satisfied, imagine your message in the original profile passing through this portal. What happens to it? Does it change in text? Tone? Purpose? 

5. In the space of the "avatar" profile, write a re-imagined version of your original message, after it has passed through the portal. What is the message? Is it any less or more reflective of you than the original message? 

CLICK HERE FOR Josiah’s Example

Clip from Ash’s Visit:

ABOUT ASH:

Ash is an artist-researcher who uses storytelling, simulation, and worldbuilding to speculate and activate futures—to shape new realities. Utilizing multiple platforms from immersive role-play performances to location-based experiences, Ash works across art+science, between fact+fiction, and with human+non-human agents to re-imagine systems, perception, and embodiment. Ash has worked as an actor, performer, musician, producer, director, and writer for various media platforms and is currently an Assistant Professor of Emerging Media Arts in the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln where she has launched an interdisciplinary lab focused on story, worlds, and speculative design. 

https://www.projectblanksd.org/ash-eliza-smith

ABOUT MUSIC.VIDEO.

What in the past was considered two distinct entities; divided by presentation platforms, legibility, perceived intellectual rigor, class associations, etc. have become a swirl of interdependencies, mutual mimicry, and genre bending. So-called High Art and Low Art have both maintained these characterizations as facets of their composition, but have also taken on board their inverse. Increasingly, both Low and High explore a hybridized middle, neither rarefied art object nor pop cultural production, but more something simmering between.